First Space Spiders Arabella and Anita Spun Very Fine Webs for Skylab

Summary: First space spiders Arabella and Anita spun very fine webs for Skylab 3 mission, which operated July to September 1973 at the Skylab space station.

(left) steps in web formation by common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) and (right) completed web; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 43: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS

First space spiders Arabella and Anita spun very fine webs for Skylab 3 mission, which was conducted from Saturday, July 28, to Tuesday, Sept. 25, 1973, as NASA’s second manned mission to Skylab, the first United States space station.

The two common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) were transported to the Skylab space station as participants in experiment ED52, Web Formation in Zero Gravity. They were housed in separate transportation vials for the mission. They were assigned separate shifts in the experiment’s screened observation cage for web formation.

Arabella reported reluctantly for web-spinning duty first on Sunday, Aug. 5. The mission’s scientist-pilot, Owen Garriot (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019), had to resort to shaking Arabella’s vial in order to transfer her into the web-formation cage. The three webs that she completed between Monday, Aug. 6, and Wednesday, Aug. 22, reflected her trajectory from disorientation to orientation in weightlessness.

Arabella’s session in the web formation cage ended Sunday, Aug. 28. She mirrored her reluctant entry of Aug. 6 into the cage with a reluctant exit.

After Arabella’s return to her transportation vial, Anita’s vial was placed in position on the web formation cage. A videotape and 16 mm film recorded Anita’s public encounter with weightlessness. Skylab, Classroom in Space, edited by Lee B. Summerlin and published by NASA in 1977, noted: “She, too, had to be forcibly ejected from her vial and, in fact, had to be picked off Garriott’s arm before she could be induced to ‘swim’ into place on the side of her cage” (page 47).

As with Arabella, Anita adjusted to weightlessness. Her three successive webs attested to her confident transformation of the unfamiliar environment of weightlessness into a familiar, workable environment.

Unfortunately, Anita’s space journey ended Sunday, Sept. 16, when Garriott “. . . found her dead in the cage. The dead spider was transferred to her launch vial for return to Earth.”

Arabella also did not survive the mission. After splashdown Tuesday, Sept. 25, Arabella was found dead in her transportation vial.

Prior to the start of the Skylab 3 mission, Arabella and Anita had spun pre-flight webs to serve as controls for their in-flight webs. Marshall Space Flight Center’s (MSFC) Skylab Student Project Report, published by NASA in 1974, observed that after the mission’s completion: “Examination of the returned web samples indicated that the thread spun in flight was significantly finer than that spun pre-flight giving positive evidence that the spider utilized a weight sensing organism to size her thread” (page 43).

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report noted the availability of “. . . 43 frames of 35mm film and several hundred feet of 16mm film (TV converted to film and conventional movie film) . . .” for analysis by the experiment’s student investigator, Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts, and her MSFC science adviser, Raymond L. Gause (page 46). Pre-flight data included five web photographs, of which four were spun by Arabella and one was built by Anita, according to German pharmacologist Peter N. Witt (born 1918) and four co-authors in their Skylab 3 web experiment analysis, published in the Journal of Arachnology’s spring 1976 issue.

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report described the steps taken by female common cross spiders to spin their daily, pre-dawn webs. The web starts with a rudimentary structure, a bridge and frame, to which radial threads are added. A temporary spiral emanating from the web’s hub, or central region, gives the gauge for the distance around the hub, which, in turn, informs “. . . the amount of silk required to complete the web and establishes the mesh size” (page 38). The web’s “sticky or catching portion” requires a construction of a signal thread in a “free section . . . from the spider’s retreat to the limb of the web” as a prey presence alert (page 38). The web’s elements generally comprise “30 to 40 radials and 25 to 35 spiral turns.” Dr. Witt et al. noted the spiders’ inclusion of prey traps even “under the very strange conditions of Skylab” (page 117).

The takeaways for first space spiders Arabella’s and Anita’s very fine web-spinning for the Skylab 3 mission are that the two common cross spiders considered weightlessness by resizing their threads and that their space webs’ inclusion of a sticky trap also conformed with their Earth webs’ prey-catching purpose.

“Anita proved that she, too, could produce almost Earth-like webs once she had adapted to weightlessness.”; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 49: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left) steps in web formation by common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) and (right) completed web; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 43: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

“Anita proved that she, too, could produce almost Earth-like webs once she had adapted to weightlessness.”; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 49: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

For further information:

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Caswell, Kurt. Laika's Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog. San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press, 2018.

Hitt, David; Owen Garriott; and Joe Kerwin. Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story. Featuring the In-Flight Diary of Alan Bean. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books/about/Homesteading_Space.html?id=sR5Cm_zeIekC

Kelly, Michelle. “Alan L. Bean Oral History Interviews.” NASA Johnson Space Center History Portal > NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. June 23, 1998.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/BeanAL/beanal.htm

Marriner, Derdriu. “Arabella and Anita Spun First Space Webs in August 1973 at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/arabella-and-anita-spun-first-space.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “First Web in Space Was Spun in 1973 by Common Cross Spider Arabella.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/first-web-in-space-was-spun-in-1973-by.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 22, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/fourth-moonwalker-alan-bean-commanded.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma Did Second EVA Aug. 24, 1973, at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/owen-garriott-and-jack-lousma-did.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylab 3 Astronaut Wives Pranked Spouses With Unofficial Mission Patch.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-astronaut-wives-pranked.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Captured Dramatic Solar Prominences in August 1973." Earth and Space News. Wednesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/skylab-3-captured-dramatic-solar.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylab 3 Mission Patch Emphasized Earth, Sun and Medical Themes.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-mission-patch-emphasized-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylabbers Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma First Spacewalked Aug. 6, 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/skylabbers-owen-garriott-and-jack.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Two Mummichog Minnows Became First Fish in Space in 1973 Via Skylab 3.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 29, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/two-mummichog-minnows-became-first-fish.html

NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. “C. Zoology. 1. ED52 -- Web Formation.” MSFC Skylab Student Project Report: 38-46. NASA Technical Memorandum TM X-64866. NASA Skylab Program Office. August 1974.
Available @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “Web Formation -- Skylab Student Experiment ED-52.” Jan. 1, 1973.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MSFC-9513727

Summerlin Lee B., ed. Skylab, Classroom in Space: 41-48. Prepared by George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA SP-401. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1977.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reports Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19770022245.pdf

Witt, Peter N.; Mabel B. Scarboro; Rubenia Daniels; David B. Peakall; and Raymond L. Gause. “Spider Web-Building in Outer Space: Evaluation of Records From the Skylab Spider Experiment.” Journal of Arachnology, vol. 4, issue 2 (Spring 1976): 115-124.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52939706

Zahl, Paul A. “What’s So Special About Spiders?” National Geographic, vol. 140, no. 2 (August 1971): 190-219.

Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973

Summary: Fourth moonwalker Alan Bean commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973 for NASA’s second manned mission to the first United States space station.

Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot Russell “Rusty” Schweikart (back to camera) and another training officer (left background) wear surgical masks as Skylab 3 mission’s scientist-pilot Owen Garriott (center), with mock-up of trunnion plug plate, Commander Alan Bean (center background) and mission pilot Jack Lousma (center right) participate in prelaunch training at Johnson Space Center, Houston, Harris County, Southeast Texas; Saturday, June 30, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library

Fourth moonwalker Alan Bean commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973 for NASA’s second manned mission to Skylab, the first United States space station.

The Skylab 3 mission launched Saturday, July 28, 1973, from Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral since Oct. 9, 1973) in east central Florida at 11:10:50 Coordinated Universal Time (7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Saturn IB launch vehicle carried the crew and mission paraphernalia in Apollo CSM (command and service module) 117.

Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018) headed the mission’s three-astronaut crew as commander. The mission marked the first spaceflights for scientist-pilot Owen Kay Garriott (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019) and mission pilot Jack Robert Lousma (born Feb. 29, 1936).

CSM 117 sheltered a multi-species cargo. The three astronauts shared the module with Anita and Arabella, a pair of common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus); six pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris); 180 fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) pupae; two mummichog minnows (Fundular heteroclitus); and 50 minnow fish eggs.

Anita and Arabella participated in the mission’s experiment on web formation in zero gravity. Their presence in Skylab 3 marked the first arachnid (Ancient Greek: ἀράχνη, arákhnē, “spider”) journey to space. Arabella debuted the first made-in-space web during Skylab 3. Anita is famed as the second spider to spun a web in space.

The NASA-conducted experiment was proposed by Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts. The high schooler qualified as one of 25 national finalists in NASA's Skylab Student Project competition.

The pocket mice and fruit flies (also known as vinegar gnats) were involved in circadian rhythm experiments. The mission’s Circadian Periodicity Experiment (CPE) unit included separate housings for the pocket mice and the fruit flies. NASA Ames Research Center’s 1995 report, Life Into Space, acknowledged: “Unfortunately, about 30 hours after launch a power failure occurred and resulted in the loss of both experiments” (page 80).

The two mummichog minnows boarded the Skylab 3 mission as the first fish in space. The two minnows learned to orientate themselves in the unfamiliar environment of weightlessness.

The space fish population burgeoned to 48 during the mission with the hatching of all but two eggs. The fish fry emerged from their eggs with innate orientations to their habitat in space.

Three spacewalks, known as extravehicular activity (EVA), took place during the Skylab 3 mission. Astronauts Garriott and Lousma experienced their first spacewalk during the mission’s first extravehicular activity (EVA 1), which began Monday, Aug. 6, 1973, at 17:30 UTC (1:30 p.m. EDT). EVA 1 ended six hours 31 minutes later, Tuesday, Aug. 7, at 00:01 UTC (8:01 p.m. EDT, Monday, Aug. 6).

After their fledgling spacewalk, the duo became veterans in their outing for the mission’s second spacewalk (EVA 2). Their second spacewalk began Friday, Aug. 24, at 16:24 UTC (12:24 p.m. EDT). They completed the spacewalk four hours 31 minutes later, at 20:55 UTC (4:55 p.m. EDT).

Scientist-pilot Garriott claimed participation in all three of the mission’s spacewalks. He joined Commander Bean for EVA 3, which began Saturday, Sept. 22, at 11:18 UTC (7:18 a.m. EDT) and ended two hours 41 minutes later, at 13:59 UTC (9:59 a.m. EDT). With EVA 3, the Skylab 3 mission’s outside time totaled 13 hours 43 minutes.

The Skylab 3 mission’s third spacewalk numbered as Commander Bean’s third and last career extravehicular activity. He had conducted his first two extravehicular activities on the surface of the moon as the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 12. The Apollo 12 mission represented the United States Apollo program’s sixth manned flight and succeeded Apollo 11 as the second Apollo mission to land on Earth’s moon. With his first lunar walk, Nov. 19, 1969, Bean became the fourth moonwalker. The Apollo 12 mission’s commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr. (June 2, 1930-July 8, 1999), preceded him onto the lunar surface.

The Skylab 3 mission undocked from the space station Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 11:16:42 UTC (7:16 a.m. EDT). CSM 117 splashed down in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, approximately 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) southwest of San Diego, southwestern California. Splashdown happened at 22:19:51 UTC (6:19 p.m. EDT), 11 hours 3 minutes 9 seconds after CSM 117’s undocking. Retrieval of the command module and the crew by the recovery vessel, the USS New Orleans, occurred 42 minutes after splashdown, according to the Skylab Mission Evaluation Team's Skylab Mission Report Second Visit (1974: 2-2).

The takeaways for fourth moonwalker Alan Bean, who commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973, are that his Skylab 3 spacewalk numbered as his third and last career extravehicular activity and that, under his command, the first fish and spiders reached and lived in space and also the first made-in-space web was spun.

Skylab space station close-up view from Skylab 3 Command and Service Module (CSM) prior to docking; photographed with hand-held 70mm Hasselbad camera using a 100mm lens and SO-368 medium speed Ektachrome film; July 28, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot Russell “Rusty” Schweikart (back to camera) and another training officer (left background) wear surgical masks as Skylab 3 mission’s scientist-pilot Owen Garriott (center), with mock-up of trunnion plug plate, Commander Alan Bean (center background) and mission pilot Jack Lousma (center right) participate in prelaunch training at Johnson Space Center, Houston, Harris County, Southeast Texas; Saturday, June 30, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-s73-31322

Skylab space station close-up view from Skylab 3 Command and Service Module (CSM) prior to docking; photographed with hand-held 70mm Hasselbad camera using a 100mm lens and SO-368 medium speed Ektachrome film; Saturday, July 28, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-sl3-114-1683

For further information:

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Caswell, Kurt. Laika’s Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog. San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press, 2018.

Compton, W. (William) David; and Charles D. Benson. Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab. The NASA History Series. NASA SP-4208. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Branch, 1983.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19840017669/page/n4

Day, Dwayne. “Outpost in the Sky: Skylab, the NASA Mission Reports.” The Space Review. June 26, 2017.
Available @ http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3270/1

Hitt, David; Owen Garriott; and Joe Kerwin. Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story. Featuring the In-Flight Diary of Alan Bean. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books/about/Homesteading_Space.html?id=sR5Cm_zeIekC

Johnson, David Samuel. “The First Fish in Orbit.” Scientific American > Guest Blog. Dec. 22, 2016.
Available @ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-first-fish-in-orbit/

Lindberg, R. (Robert) G.; and P. (Page ) Hayden. Research on the Properties of Circadian Systems Amenable to Study in Space. NASA CR 137,523. Hawthrone [sic] CA: Northrop Research and Technology Center Corporate Laboratories, June 1974.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reporters Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740022376.pdf

Marriner, Derdriu. “Arabella and Anita Spun First Space Webs in August 1973 at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/arabella-and-anita-spun-first-space.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Astronaut Wives Pranked Spouses With Unofficial Mission Patch." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-astronaut-wives-pranked.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Mission Patch Emphasized Earth, Sun and Medical Themes." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-mission-patch-emphasized-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Three African Postage Stamps Honored Astrocat Félicette’s 1963 Flight.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 5, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/three-african-postage-stamps-honored.html

NASA Ames Research Center. “Chronobiology of Pocket Mice (S071).” NASA Life Sciences Data Archive > Mission > Skylab.
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NASA Ames Research Center. “Circadian Rhythm in Vinegar Gnats (S072).” NASA Life Sciences Data Archive > Mission > Skylab.
Available via NASA Life Sciences Data Archive @ https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experiment/exper/227

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NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. “C. Zoology. 1. ED52 -- Web Formation.” MSFC Skylab Student Project Report: 38-46. NASA Technical Memorandum TM X-64866. NASA Skylab Program Office. August 1974.
Available @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

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Newkirk, Roland W.; Ivan D. Ertel; and Courtney G. Brooks. Skylab: A Chronology. The NASA History Series. NASA SP-4011. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Branch, 1977.
Available via NASA History @ https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4011/contents.htm
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reporters Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19780017172.pdf

Skylab Mission Evaluation Team. Skylab Mission Report Second Visit. JSC-08662. Houston TX: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, January 1974.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reporters Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740011377.pdf

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